Friday, January 18, 2008

John McHale

John McHale, the man responsible for bringing baseball to Montreal and the Expos' first President has died:

McHale was an aide to former commissioner William Eckert in the 1960s when the National League was looking to expand by two teams - San Diego and either Montreal or Buffalo.

He was deeply involved as National League president Warren Giles helped sort out Montreal's fractured ownership group, settling on majority ownership by Charles Bronfman, which saved the Montreal bid, Fanning said. McHale then turned down an offer to replace Eckert as commissioner to join the new franchise as its first president.

If McHale had had this level of involvement with any other Major League team, there would no doubt be a memorial patch or initials sewn onto the home jerseys -- or something -- to honor his memory and contributions. The undead Expos, however, now forced to walk the Earth as the Washington Nationals, will no doubt fail to make such a gesture, just as they have failed to honor or even recognize Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, or anything else that occurred before 2005.